HassConsult today unveiled the Hass Property price indices for the fourth quarter of 2016, showing a strong demand drive for exclusive suburbs that are built up over suburbs that have high density developments. Despite a modest 0.1 percent increase in asking property prices in Nairobi’s suburbs there were pockets of stellar performance in the fourth quarter of 2016 with Muthaiga leading the pack in suburbs that recorded double digit increases in asking property prices.
Muthaiga was the best performing suburb with average house prices in the in the area increasing by 15.8 per cent in 2016, followed by Kitisuru at 14.2 per cent and Lang’ata at 13.5 per cent.
Similarly, detatched houses, which are mostly found in low density suburbs, recorded the best performance for the year posting an annual 11.3 percent increase in asking prices despite a slight drop of 0.21 per cent in prices over the fourth quarter.
“Most of these markets are exclusively high end and just like other markets globally, high end areas tend to be least affected in a sluggish economy whereas the areas with middle market properties which in Kenya constitutes property in the satellite areas generally witness a marked slowdown,” said Ms. Sakina Hassanali, Head of Research and Marketing at HassConsult.
Also affected by the macro-economic environment in 2016 were Nairobi’s high density suburbs. Kilimani posted the biggest annual price drop of 3.5 per cent. Data analysis shows this drop to be due to the price correction of recently oversupplied large apartments.
Average asking property prices for satellite towns increased by 1.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016 and 8.6 per cent of the year ended 2016. Similarly rents increased by just 0.2 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2016 and 4 per cent over the year.
Both sale and rental prices in satellite towns in 2016 have witnessed the lowest annual increase since 2008 attributable to the economic downturn that saw a cooling down of transaction numbers in these areas.
